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Common Core LiteracyGrades 11–12History & Social Studies

RH.11-12.6: Judging Historians Who Disagree

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.6 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

All 29 Grades 11–12 Literacy Standards

The Official Wording

Evaluate authors' differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors' claims, reasoning, and evidence.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 11-12, Reading: History & Social Studies · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RH.11-12.6 Means in Plain English

Juniors and seniors put two historians or eyewitnesses who disagree about one event on trial, testing each one’s claims, reasoning and evidence. One calls Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 a revolt against a corrupt governor, the other a land grab aimed at Native peoples.

Ninth and tenth grade (RH.9-10.6) compared what two authors included, stressed or left out. Grades 11-12 go further and decide whose argument holds up better, and why. This is the last band of the line, the college and career readiness level of real historical debate.

RH.11-12.6 I Can Statements

  • I can identify each author’s claim about the same historical event.
  • I can test whether each author’s evidence supports the claim.
  • I can judge whose reasoning holds up better, and explain why.

RH.11-12.6 Worked Example

Both historians are invented for this page, but each stands for a real school of thought, and every fact they cite is part of the established record.

Read the Story
Context: In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy newcomer to Virginia, led hundreds of colonists against Governor Berkeley. The quarrel began over raids on outlying farms and Berkeley’s refusal to make war on every Native people nearby, and it ended after Bacon’s followers burned Jamestown and Bacon died of disease that October.Historian A: “Bacon’s Rebellion was a people’s revolt against a narrow ring of the governor’s favorites. Its leaders protested heavy taxes and the governor’s grip on the fur trade, and the assembly elected that June restored the vote to free men who owned no land. Bacon’s own declaration listed these grievances. A century before the Revolution, Virginians were already rising against arbitrary power.”Historian B: “The rebellion was driven by land hunger. On their first march Bacon’s men turned on the Occaneechi, who had just helped them fight the Susquehannock, and later they attacked the Pamunkey, who had been at peace with the colony. Bacon’s declaration was written to win followers; it is not proof of his motives. What the rebels did shows what they wanted.”Context: After Bacon’s death the rebellion fell apart. Berkeley hanged more than twenty rebels, and the king sent soldiers and commissioners to restore order and report on the causes.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Which historian makes the stronger case about Bacon’s Rebellion? Judge each one’s claim, reasoning and evidence.
Not Yet“Historian A says it was about freedom and Historian B says it was about land. They just have different opinions, and both could be right.”It names the two claims but never tests them. It treats the disagreement as a matter of taste instead of asking which evidence is stronger and whether each conclusion follows from it.
Meets the Standard“Historian B makes the stronger case about motive, though A gets one result right. B’s evidence is what the rebels did: they turned on the Occaneechi, ‘who had just helped them,’ and on the Pamunkey, ‘who had been at peace with the colony,’ which is hard to explain as a fight against tyranny. B also finds A’s weak link, since A leans on ‘Bacon’s own declaration,’ a document written to win followers. A does have one hard fact: the June assembly ‘restored the vote to free men who owned no land,’ so the rebellion did widen the vote. But A’s leap to a revolt against ‘arbitrary power’ a century early reads later ideals back into 1676. The best account keeps B’s motive and A’s point about the vote.”It tests each historian on the kind of evidence used, finds the weak link in A’s reasoning, credits the fact A gets right, and reaches a judgment instead of stopping at difference.
Question Stems to Use
What exactly does each author claim, in one sentence each?What kind of evidence does each author use: words, actions or numbers?Does the conclusion follow from the evidence, or does it leap past it?What would each author say about the other’s best evidence?Which parts of each account would you keep in your own?

Common Mistakes with RH.11-12.6

Calling it a matter of opinion

“They disagree, so it depends on your point of view.”

Try this: Require students to rank the two accounts and defend the ranking with one piece of evidence from each historian.

Trusting the more inspiring account

“Historian A is better because a fight against tyranny is a better story.”

Try this: Have students label each piece of evidence as words or actions, and ask who produced it and why, before judging.

Throwing out the losing account

An answer that sides with Historian B and never mentions the June assembly’s voting law

Try this: Ask what each account gets right that the other misses, so the final judgment keeps every fact that survives testing.

Where RH.11-12.6 Fits

Comes BeforeRH.9-10.6Compare how two or more authors treat the same topic, including which details each includes and emphasizes.
AlongsideRI.11-12.6Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text whose rhetoric is especially effective.WHST.11-12.1Write arguments that weigh claims and counterclaims fairly, using evidence from historical sources.
Comes NextRH.11-12.8Corroborate or challenge an author’s premises, claims and evidence with other information.RH.11-12.9Integrate primary and secondary sources into one coherent account, noting discrepancies.

Practice RH.11-12.6

Quick Check

  1. What fact does Historian A cite that Historian B does not dispute?
  2. Why does Historian B distrust Bacon’s declaration as evidence?
  3. Which actions does Historian B cite to show what the rebels wanted?

RH.11-12.6: Other Names

RH.11-12.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.6

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.